A stylish new restaurant has opened in Newcastle city centre promising diners an authentic taste of Japan.
The new venue called Butakun has taken over a former barber shop and newsagents on Percy Street, serving up ramen, sushi, and rice bowls. Owners Charles Tang, Chin Teow, and Robert Lao, have spent around £600,000 transforming the premises - which sit next to The Hotspur pub - into a "high-end" eatery.
Butkaun is the third business Charles and Robert have opened in the city centre, as the pair already own popular restaurant, Chilli Padi, on Leazes Park Road and Japanese cafe, TSUJIRI, on St Andrew's Street, which opened earlier this year.
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The business owners decided to open their new restaurant after spotting a gap in the Newcastle market for a restaurant offering Japanese cuisine that specialises in "premium" sushi and sashimi, as well as offering a large variety of Japanese sakes.
Dishes are cooked up by head chef Leo Liu, who has racked up years of experience working in the premium Japanese cuisine industry in Japan and the UK.
"We hope to bring authentic and high-quality Japanese cuisine and drinks to Newcastle," Charles, 39, said.
"We are one of the first Japanese restaurants in the North East to serve premium wagyu beef directly imported from Japan, which we serve cooked on lava stone. We are also vegetarian-friendly.
"Not only that, we serve a large variety of Japanese sakes ranging from still sakes, sparkling sakes and flavoured sakes which are quite uncommon in the Newcastle bar scene. Most of these selections are not available anywhere else in the North East.
"Anyone who is interested in spirits and sakes should definitely come and check it out."
Butakun is open seven days a week from 12pm to 10pm and can sit up to 30 people as well as offering a bar area.
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